


You Bring Out the Color in Me, I Just Wish You Could Say the Same

by wuwu



Series: Tumblr AUs [4]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 07:36:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4051762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wuwu/pseuds/wuwu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Gimme your hand.” Michael reaches out and sucks in a breath as his fingertips touch Geoff’s. The brightness of the man’s shirt hits him once again and he can see that his eyes seem to match.</p>
<p>As Michael looks around in wonder, Geoff can’t help but look around in disappointment. Something had to have changed, right? Michael had to be his soulmate. He just had to.</p>
<p>He moves his fingers away from Michael’s and ignores the look of confusion sent his way as he presses their digits together once more, trying to figure out why nothing changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Bring Out the Color in Me, I Just Wish You Could Say the Same

_Soulmates this, soulmates that._ It was all Geoff had heard growing up. There were ads on TV that tried to scam people into finding their other half, newspaper columns someone had paid for to look for anyone willing to see if they were their soulmate, tons of people trying to meet up through craigslist in hopes that maybe fate would actually give them some luck and grant them the meeting of their special someone.

Geoff hated it.

Not the soulmates, dear god, no. Finding someone that would actually be able to tolerate him for more than two weeks? Sign him up. He hated how everyone tried so hard, as if they would be lonely for the rest of their life if they didn’t. It wasn’t unheard of, either. Some would die without ever meeting their soulmate, and some would even go their whole life looking for a soulmate that never existed whether it be because they hadn’t been born yet or they simply weren’t meant to have one. But even so, Geoff felt that seeking for soulmates was wrong. Obviously everything was planned out from the start, so why not let everything take its course? It was stupid to try and look for a soulmate anyways considering the only key fact in knowing you were meant to be with one another was the fact that once you touched you would get bombarded with color and be free of the drab monochrome world everyone had been born into.

There was no way to tell, besides that fact. So even with the whole Universe Plan reason out of the way, it was nearly impossible to find a mate through a craigslist ad.

“So you’re telling me you had no idea she was your soulmate when you started hitting on her?” Geoff asks.

“Not a clue,” Jack grins. He picks at the strings of his jacket, twirling the soft string around and around his finger before unraveling it and repeating the motion once more.

The two had been strolling through their neighborhood after agreeing to discuss Jack’s newly found mate, Caiti Ward. The sun was peaking out behind the clouds, almost as if it were playing peek-a-boo judging by the way the ground would darken and the air would cool as it would hide once more before reemerging. The sidewalk was damp with the remnants of raindrops and the asphalt was heating up as the moisture seeps away. It was a bit humid, but not very since the year was beginning to transition from autumn to winter. A few cars were seen here and there and the amount soon picked up as they made their way into the more urban portion of town.

“Talk about lucky,” Geoff scoffs, a playful smile decorating his features soon after. “What does she look like? Is she hot?”

“Oh man,” Jack sighs. His eyes are stuck on the sky, lost in the blue-gray hue under the white, fluffy clouds. “She’s got the most gorgeous eyes. They’re a blue-green color and the way they light up when she smiles is the best. Her smile is the biggest one I’ve seen yet and it compliments her so well, especially when she wears that red lipstick of hers.”

“Hate to interrupt, but I have no idea what those fucking colors are,” Geoff interjects. “And I don’t know why you had to include them in your description of her.”

“Well, it’s like… Colors make everything better, in a way,” Jack shrugs. He stares at the scuffle of shoes against the asphalt as they cross a street, listening to the scraping of rubber against road as he gathered his thoughts. “I already thought she was beautiful, and actually being able to see the different contrasts against her skin made her even more striking. It’s not something easy to forget.”

“Easy for me,” Geoff jokes.

“Asshole,” Jack mutters.

They walk in an easy silence after that, soaking in the chill the wind brings and light chatter of the people that attempt at small talk as they wait for an extremely long light to turn red so they can cross the street once more. It’s only after a few more minutes of looking through store windows that Geoff decides to break their aimless wandering.

He drags Jack into what seems to be an almost rundown coffee shop. The outside is plain and bland in Geoff’s eyes, a dark gray surrounding the glass door as he peers into an even darker room. Jack smiles at the comfort of it, though. As they walk in he gazes at the Christmas lights stapled to the tops of the walls and low hanging light bulbs. A few ceiling fans are placed in the middle of room just atop the few amount of tables scattered throughout. A few booths line the wall to their right as a couple of beanbags are placed near the door. A few teens were situated around the beanbags, some sitting on each other’s laps as they splay themselves across the smooth surface. A beat up couch is just to the left of the door, another table just next to it. On the left wall are coffee machines lined up on a high counter, whirring and grounding beans as baristas pour what seems to be an endless amount of whipped cream atop the fulls cups. A deep brown counter with two registers separated the dining area from the array of coffee machines and ingredients. It continued on to the far back wall with a glass casing full of pastries and small refrigerated cases full of small cakes. A chalk menu with various specials and orders was hung up on the wall behind the counter to display probable orders and discounts.

To Jack it was a calming sight, to Geoff it was just nicely decorated.

“You want me to order?” Jack asks as he moves his hand to bring out his wallet.

“Nah, I got it,” Geoff says with a shake of his head. “You want the usual?”

Jack gives a nod as he goes to find a booth that isn’t too worn out, seating himself on the faded red cloth. Geoff makes his way to stand in front of the display case, peering up at the menu to decide on something. He stands there for another minute before approaching the register, fingers digging his wallet out from his back pocket.

“Welcome to _The Rooster_ , how may I take your order?”

Geoff smiles at the boy in front of him, probably in his early twenties if he doesn’t happen to be in his teens. A smile is plastered on his face (most likely a mandatory one, Geoff thinks), eyes widening in the slightest as Geoff’s tattooed arms come to a rest on the top of the counter. He’s got small specks across the tops of his cheeks, hidden just under the frames of his glasses and an apron is wrapped around his neck and tied over a white shirt. His fingers hover over the register and Geoff flashes a lazy smile, eyes flicking down to read the name tag pinned to the boy’s apron. He might not be totally convinced on dating someone that wasn’t your soulmate, but maybe he could make an exception.

“Hello Michael, I’d like one medium eggnog latte and one medium latte macchiato,” Geoff says. “Order for Geoff.”

Michael nods and taps quickly on the keys of the register, looking back up as he does so. “Your total will be fifteen dollars and thirty-eight cents,” he says. Geoff goes through an array of cards before settling on a light gray one and hands it to Michael. He takes it out of Geoff’s hand and gives it back after swiping it. Instead of placing it between pale fingers, though, Michael accidentally drops it on the counter and the two go to pick it up.

And that’s when Michael sees it.

Their fingers brush as they both scramble to pick up the card and it’s like a burst of life when the cobalt blue of Geoff’s shirt hits Michael’s eyes, the vibrant red of the beanbags fill the room, the murky green of his apron stains his retinas, because holy shit _he can see color!_ (Of course he doesn’t know the names of them, not yet, but they’re still lovely all the same.) But when he looks back up at Geoff the color goes away because their fingers are no longer touching, and Michael can feel his heart drop as the man doesn’t seem to have seen anything.

But fuck that if he wasn’t gonna damn well confirm they weren’t soulmates.

Geoff misses the disappointed look Michael gives him, much more occupied with putting his debit card back in his wallet as he walks to the booth Jack was sitting at. As he makes his way towards the booth he can feel his eyes sting behind his lids.

“You alright?” Jack asks, pointedly looking at tattooed hands rubbing bright, blue eyes.

“Yeah, I just got somethin’ in my eye,” Geoff says, scrunching up his nose as he puts his hand down to slouch on the cool surface of the table.

While the two talk animatedly at their booth, Michael bounces on his feet as he whips up their coffees. He’s gnawing on his bottom lip and Gavin is giving him worried looks but he doesn’t care. All he wants to do is find out why the fuck he saw colors when Geoff didn’t.

“Gav, do me a favor and get me a medium latte macchiato,” Michael barks out. Gavin gives a jerky nod from where he’s cleaning the counter and moves to put together the coffee. Michael is just putting whipped cream on the top of the eggnog latte when the coffee he asked for is placed before him. He gives a nod to Gavin before yelling at the boy to cover him while he steps out of their workspace.

Michael can’t help but miss the vibrant splash of color he saw as he brushed fingers with Geoff and desperately hopes the man actually is his soulmate. He’d lose it if he had to live in such a dull world for the rest of his life. And sure not having a soulmate would suck, too… but no color? Now _that_ was some fucked up stuff.

“One eggnog latte and one latte macchiato for Geoff,” Michael recites, placing the cups down on the table. He gives a friendly smile as the bearded man across from Geoff gives a thankful nod. “Do y’all mind if I sit here? I’m on break and there’s nothing to do.”

“Go ahead.” Michael gave a short nod and sat across from Geoff, giving an apologetic look at Jack when he had to scoot over.

“You’re Geoff, right?” Michaels asks as he watches Geoff take a sip from his cup.

“And that’s Jack.”

“Hello,” Jack says after moving his cup away from his lips. His lips purse together as he undoubtedly folds his now burnt tongue in his mouth.

“Fucking drink it slowly,” Geoff mutters with a roll of his eyes. He turns to Michael with a small smile on his face and raises and eyebrow. “Any reason why you decided to sit with us instead of, well, anybody else in this goddamn place?”

Michael opens his mouth to talk but closes it when no words come out of his mouth. Planning what to say would’ve been nice. “I, uh, wanted to ask you something,” Michael utters. His tongue darts out to swipe at his lips and he stares at the tattoos on Geoff’s fingers, wondering if they really were black or some other color he can’t remember. “Did you… did you not see color back there?” His eyes are staring straight into Geoff’s now and he can feel his heart beat harder and harder in his chest as it seems to move up into his throat.

“Back there?” Geoff asks. His eyebrows scrunch together as he thinks and he’s hit with a dawn of realization as his mouth pops open. “Wait, you saw color?”

“I-- yeah,” Michael nods. He can hear Jack sputter into his drink beside him but pays no mind, intent on staring out Geoff just in case he has to walk away with his tail between his legs.

“Gimme your hand.” Michael reaches out and sucks in a breath as his fingertips touch Geoff’s. The brightness of the man’s shirt hits him once again and he can see that his eyes seem to match. He looks over to Jack and sees the slight hints of ginger in his beard but otherwise brownness of his hair. The shirt he’s wearing is black (finally, a color he can actually name!) while his jacket is an off-white color. The once drab and dull coffee shop comes to life in his eyes, even if nothing sticks out to him, because goddamn it’s still brighter than before.

As Michael looks around in wonder, Geoff can’t help but look around in disappointment. Something had to have changed, right? Michael had to be his soulmate. He just had to.

He moves his fingers away from Michael’s and ignores the look of confusion sent his way as he presses their digits together once more, trying to figure out why nothing changed.

“You alright?” Jack asks. A look of concern is on his face and Geoff frowns as the expression is mimicked on Michael’s as well.

“Yeah, I just... I just… Fuck this, something is wrong,” Geoff sighs.

Michael’s eyes seem to dim and Geoff wishes he could see how bright they once were, full of excitement and joy as he looked around the quaint coffee shop. He hates that he essentially crushed his hopes and dreams, but what was he supposed to do? Lie about it?

When Michael pulls his hand away, Geoff can see the slightest change of color.

“Wait, Michael, give me your hand.” He wriggles his fingers in the air and stares at the gray of Michael’s irises, not taking his eyes away from the sight.

“We’re not soulmates, Geoff,” Michael mumbles. “You don’t have to put on an act for me.”

“Just shut up and _give me your hand._ ”

Michael tentatively brushes his arm across the table to meet Geoff’s, biting at the inside of his cheek as the man places his fingers atop the back of his hand.

“There it is!” Geoff gasps. He takes his fingers off and places them back once again, nodding to himself as he sees the change. The gray of Michael’s eyes change to one of a muted green when he puts his fingers back. “Your eyes are like, almost gray, right? Except, not?”

“I don’t think so?” Michael says. Everyone had always told him his eyes were brown, and he was pretty sure that wasn’t anywhere close to gray.

“Jack, what color are his eyes?” Geoff asks. “Are they a gray-ish color?”

Jack taps Michael’s arm and takes a glance at his eyes before shaking his head. “They’re brown, Geoff. Not really anything gray-ish.”

“No, they gotta be,” Geoff assures, more to himself than anyone else, really. “They went from like gray to an uglier shade.”

“Thanks,” Michael mutters.

“Geoff, what color is your shirt?”

His eyes dart down to look at the cotton and his eyebrows seem to form a unibrow as he struggles to grasp the concept of why his shirt is bright and beautiful when everything else in the room isn’t. “It’s uh…” He takes a look around the room to find something to match it to, stopping when he sees the sky outside the shop window. It’s a beautiful color, like the feeling of water running down your fingers after putting your hand under a faucet. Soft and smooth as it trails down, cooling down anything it touches. “It’s the same color of the sky.”

“You can see blue, but not brown,” Jack says slowly.

“Apparently so.”

“So does that mean we _are_ soulmates?” Michael asks, eyes gaining back the sense of hope they once had. “Like, half soulmates?”

“I mean, some people have more than one, right?” Geoff questions. “But then, that means I’d have like, two, and you’d only have me. And you can see all the colors, right?”

Michael nods and stares at the table once more when Jack scoots his phone across the table.

“Tell me which colors look gray to you,” he says and Geoff gives a nod before intertwining his and Michael’s fingers together.

“This one I can see,” Geoff says as he points to the color blue. “And this one is kind of the same as that one.” He points to purple next. “And this one is like gray, but kind of not? And this one too!” He points to both red and green now, unknowingly pointing to yellow and orange, too.

“Well what was that supposed to prove?” Michael asks.

“Geoff, I think you might be colorblind.”

“What does that mean?” Geoff asks.

“It’s basically where you can’t see certain colors or some of them might actually look like a different one to you,” Jack clarifies. “And I’m pretty sure you have it since you can see blue and purple but not anything else.”

“So he’s not gonna be able to see shit?” Michael turns to look at Jack, mouth pressed into a thin line.

“He might be able to see some other colors if we look at more stuff. There’s not much I can tell when I only showed him a picture of the rainbow.”

“This is bullshit,” Geoff calls out. “Do you know how long I’ve waited to see how fucking pretty everything is? Do you know how long I’ve waited to see the colors of my tattoos? I was so excited to know what fucking colors they were and all I get is disappointment. What color is that, hmm? I WOULDN’T FUCKING KNOW.”

Michael’s eyes crinkle shut as he lets out a small laugh, peering back up at Geoff as he fumes in his seat. The once ghostly pale of his skin now held an undertone of yellow with the smallest hint of red in his cheeks and ears. His bright eyes were glaring at the ceiling, most likely cursing at whatever god gave him those very orbs.

“You’re overreacting,” Jack sighs.

“ _YOU’RE OVERREACTING,_ ” Geoff spits out. “It’s not fair that you get to look at Caiti and see how pretty she is when I’m gonna look at Michael and see this weird ass gray color! It’s bullshit and I hate it.”

The table grew quiet then, Jack and Michael fully thinking about what this meant for Geoff. He’d been looking forward to seeing color since he was old enough to understand that the world wasn’t supposed to be black and white. He was excited to meet his soulmate and see how beautiful the world could be, but instead he was given nothing but muted and switched colors. He wouldn’t be able to see the color of most of his clothes, wouldn’t know what it was like to have a color TV, would never get to see the color of Michael’s hair or the flush of his skin as they would soon spend lazy Saturdays together.

“At least I don’t have to buy new shirts because the ones I have don’t match my pants,” Geoff mumbles.

“And you won’t have to worry about buying new furniture ‘cause yours don’t match,” Jack offers.

“A true inspiration,” Michael laughs.

“Exactly,” Geoff nods. “I’ll be loved around the world, all for my stupid vision.” He grins across the table at Michael, squeezing the boy’s hand and laughing when he squeezes back with a small glance away.

“Michael!” Gavin calls out, leaning over the counter and almost falling before being tugged by the back of his apron by another co-worker. “Get back to work, you slacker!”

“Shit, sorry,” he exclaims, ungrasping Geoff’s hand and pulling away as he slides out of the booth. The colors around him slowly fade away as he does so and Michael can’t help but think about how he’ll miss them. “Pick me up at five?”

“You got it,” Geoff beams at him.

And as the color slowly seeps back into his sight, Michael can’t stop himself from pressing a kiss to the man’s cheek before running and sliding over the counter to tackle Gavin.

**Author's Note:**

> I might write an epilogue to this?? idk yet but I hope y'all liked it! <3


End file.
